BP shows off new Gulf of Mexico safety system

BP has put its enhanced well-monitoring capabilities in the Gulf of Mexico on display to demonstrate the extra layers of safety the company put in place following the 2010 oil spill at its Macondo well. As The Houston Chronicle reports, the British oil giant took a small group of reporters on a tour of the state-of-the-art well-monitoring facility at its West Houston campus, where it analyzes and responds to around-the-clock well data beamed from its nine rigs stationed in the Gulf. The tour comes two weeks before a civil trial is set to begin over the 2010 disaster, which killed 11 workers and was the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. In 2011, BP opened the monitoring facility, where a team of 30 specialists housed in a glass room monitor what happens inside its wells that are being drilled in the Gulf. A $3 million training facility also opened last May in a nearby building. There, well-site leaders go through enhanced training in drilling operations. The room is retrofitted with valves, control panels, blowout preventer dials, and a simulator that includes a drilling supervisor’s chair. “We want to be the Harvard of well control,” says Mark Venettozzi, a BP global training manger. Read the full story here.